Q&A: Paul di Resta, Sahara Force India

It's an unusual situation, because you've both done one season of racing, and one year of Friday FP1s – albeit not in the same order!

Paul di Resta:We're on equal territory. He's probably done a bit more mileage than me in an F1 car, and he knows all the tracks, so there's not really any disadvantage for him. And he knows the team.

Q:You often shared a car with Nico on Fridays last year. Did you learn from that whether you have similar styles, and perhaps would like the new car to develop in the same direction?

Paul di Resta:The testing priorities were always different, and even between FP1 and FP2 the car would change – they would generally try new things with Nico when he was in the car just to get a bit of an idea, even if it was about future races. So I don't really know – I think that will develop over the winter.

Q:The competition in the middle of the pack is very strong. Do you agree that it's not going to be easy to repeat last year's form?

Paul di Resta:True, we've got a job in hand to maintain sixth. At the end of last year we punched way higher than I think we should have, and credit to the team for their ambition. I think everybody is still on a high from that and hopefully that will push us to another level again. But it's going to take a lot of dedication to achieve that. We have to start off where we finished last year and keep pushing in that direction.

Q:Looking at the overall package can you see any reason why you can't do that?

Paul di Resta:There's definitely no reason why we can't. We've had good stability and we have the same technical staff, and the same partners: Mercedes-Benz for engine and KERS, and McLaren for gearbox and hydraulics. So everything is very stable and has carried on over. It almost feels like there's not been an end of the season and a beginning of the new one. Everybody's in the same state of mind.

TO SEE PICTURES FROM THE LAUNCH OF THE SAHARA FORCE INDIA VJM05, CLICK HERE

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Paul did ok last year, albeit not as good as he seems to think he did. He's lucky he now gets Nico alongside him, which should help him be able to beat his teammate this year especially if he gets a bunch of points over Hulk in the beginning of the season.
It's really a big boon for him Sutil is now gone. If he would have gotten beat another year his reputation would have taken a big hit. Now though he has a great chance to beat Hulkenberg and look good. If he does so, him being a brit and connected to Merc at the same time might well see him end up at Mercedes or McLaren, eventhough I personally think others like Koba, Perez and on talent, Sutil would deserve the seat more. But that's F1...Some of it is talent, but a lot is connections, money and sometimes a little luck of the draw.